Football

KU football program lands oral commitments from Juco LB and WR

Although the outcome left the Memorial Stadium bleachers nearly empty and 23 seniors on the verge of tears, it appears that Saturday’s 51-23 loss to Iowa State was not a total loss for the Kansas University football program.

Rivals site JayhawkSlant.com is reporting that two junior college prospects committed to the Jayhawks following Saturday’s loss to the Cyclones.

Samson Faifili, a linebacker at American River juco, orally committed to the Jayhawks immediately after the loss.

During his first two juco seasons Faifili registered 110 tackles, including 14 for loss and 12 sacks. It sounds as if the opportunity to be a part of KU’s ongoing rebuilding project appealed to the 5-foot-11, 240-pound inside linebacker.

"Coach Weis told me before I committed that it is easy for a recruit to jump on a train that's already going" Faifili told the web site. "But it takes a strong person to go somewhere to help build something. I want to go in and help build a team and hopefully lead them to Big 12 championships."

Faifili had offers from Charlotte, Hawaii, Iowa State, Nevada and Oregon State. He cancelled his upcoming visit to Iowa State and said his commitment is solid and his trips are finished.

Not long after learning of Faifili’s commitment, JayhawkSlant reported that Mark Thomas, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound wide receiver from Nassau Community College in New York (former school of KU lineman Aslam Sterling) also had orally committed to Kansas.

Thomas was being pursued by West Virginia, UConn, Purdue and Arizona State, but said his bond with KU receivers coach Rob Ianello and the pieces in place at KU made his decision easy.

"I think the future is good and I believe Jake Heaps is going to be a very good quarterback," Thomas told JayhawkSlant’s Jon Kirby. "He set all kinds of records at BYU. The history that Charlie Weis has also speaks a lot about the future. I think if we get the right players we can open up the offense. I liked a lot of people I met. I felt at home."

The addition of Faifili and Thomas brings KU’s commitment list in the Class of 2013 to 13. Both players made official visits to KU over the weekend.

Weis said last week that KU was in position to sign as many as 27 players in the class.

Comments

Pretty impressive to land a guy like the linebacker. Think from that kid's perspective. He sees KU get drubbed by Iowa State at home. Makes state bowel eligible and means KU would need about 60 more games on the schedule this year to achieve the same. What does he do? Goes and cancels his visit to Iowa state and commits to KU. I think it says a lot about how Weis is selling this program right now. As well as the recruiting talent of his staff. It's going to take time but the players are coming.

Good to see we got the linebacker. We need to get some young talented d-linemen going in this recruiting class.

Look J-Doc - I see ur point about Faifili committing to us after we get pounded. But I'm not sold that Weis will be able to get the talent that we need to compete in the big 12.

Now that we can look back on the season...I think Weis and Campo did a nice job with what they had. But if they don't get some studs in here...especially on the D-Line...then this program will continue to struggle against Big 12 competition.

Don't know where the doubt comes from. There is no reason that this staff with all their experience and pull in the NFL can't be the best recruiting staff we ave had here in a long time. I say we give them a couple full years of recruiting before we make judgment calls on their ability to get the right guys here in the system

13 commitments so far with 14 spots still open...we're not even halfway home yet, so let's at least give the staff a chance to put together a full recruiting class before we say what they can and cannot do. Everything that I've heard about Campo, and this is the nice surprise, is that the kids love his energy. I'm confident that he'll bring in some d-line help and I'm confident that Gruny will get some big boys up front.

Getting the talent is key, because we know Weis is a good play-caller and Campo has KU playing what looks like the same defense as K-state with all the zone coverages and little to no blitzing, and look at KSU's record. Those defenses can win in the Big 12, you just must have more talent than KU currently has.

On the D-line so far we beat out LSU, Mississippi State, and Iowa for Andrew Bolton, who also received interest from Alabama and Oklahoma. In addition, we beat out TTU, Iowa State, and Mississippi State again for Tedarian Johnson.

Next year we'll have at least 3 LB's in Heeney, Marcus Jenkins-Moore, and Faifili who can compete in the Big 12, and Schyler Miles and Jake Love should provide quality depth. LT, DL, CB, S, and K are now our biggest needs. We should be fine at WR with McCay and Thomas. Josh Ford will finally know the playbook and hopefully Turzili is stronger and more consistent.

Unless KU adds more ready to play DE's and DT's, Andrew Bolton and Tedarian Johnson might be our only DL who can compete in the Big 12. We must add at least one more DL who can start from day one or else we're counting on Kevin Young, Jordan Tavai, and Ben Goodman playing a lot next season.

If Patmon is our starting CB next year, it's going to be another bad year defensively for KU. I think we should move him and Dexter McDonald to safety and start Shepard and either Tyree Williams, Collin Spencer, or Greg Allen at CB next year. Hopefully we add at least one more S and one more CB who can contribute immediately.

I think we should keep Aslam Sterling at RT and try to get a LT who can start next year on the recruiting trail, because do we want Riley Spencer or Pat Lewandowski starting next year at LT? We should be fine everywhere else at OL with Martin, Admire, Dent, and Sterling.

Taylor Lewis from Desoto, TX is committed. Not sure how big he is now, but he's listed as Safety in High School. Rivals says he's 6'0" 180 lbs. but that was before the season began. I'm pretty sure he can some weight and his frame can handle it, but the concern for him is that he will have to be able to maintain his cover ability. The Dallas area certainly does not lack in football talent.

Thomas is a 4.4 speed guy and McKay has good size. This will help Turzilli. Josh Ford will likely be a bit lighter and quicker come next fall, sort of like James Sims who is clearly faster and stronger than a year ago. Parmalee is a shifty guy in the slot. The good news here is that are 1 and 2 WR positions will likely have 2 deep with at least 6 feet size or bigger. So many of those passes this year just off the finger tips to shorter guys will become completions next year. It isn't just that, but almost all the receivers will be bigger than 200 lbs which gives them an advantage over shorter and lighter DBs that we face. Baylor, Tech's, and even one of Texas's DBs were sub 190 lbs. this year.

Better news on the OL, Rivals is reporting that Ngalu Fusimalohi has orally committed to play at Kansas, 6'3" 300 lb. He started for the City College of San Francisco and were National Champions a year ago.

I know that this is pure theory and "what ifs", but a few more good players and we would have won 3 more games. With 6 or 7 better players and we may have been bowl or bowel eligible. Each year, there are a couple of Big 12 teams we can beat, if we play well and we get some breaks. With a better team, we win those plus our non-conference. We are not that far away.

If Heaps and McCay were eligible this season, we probably would of beat Rice, NIU, OSU, and Texas, so there's 5-7 with just two players. Maybe with Andrew Bolton, Tedarian Johnson, and Markus Jenkins-Moore we beat TCU and are bowl eligible.

By KSU getting pounded by Baylor we are stuck with a SEC team again in the championship game with Notre Dame who has played the weakest schedule of the top 6 teams. One loss by KSU negated the entire Big XII conference and again shifts the football power to the south and to an independent. How Oregon who lost in OT to a ranked Stanford team dropped behind 3 SEC is a joke. The BCS is a travesty. Why college football has to wait for a playoff is a joke.

Listen...I understand it's a little disappointing that the Big XII was snubbed.

But I must say, and I can't emphasize this enough, if K-State were to go on and win the National Championship, life as we know it would cease. The KSU faithful are the biggest group of insufferable morons I've ever had the misfortune of knowing. And we wouldn't hear the end of their triumph for decades to come.

100% correct. Just looking through my social media feeds during and after their Baylor loss reminded me why I'm glad its a 1 and done system right now. They are the biggest group of complainers known in sports, but the first ones to gloat and remind the world just how awesome they are if they do anything well (DVDs for winning a game and the like). If they had by some chance gone to the championship and won, we would never have heard the end of it, just like how they cling to that decade of dominance.

I am also pretty optimistic for the future, but let's not forget they are losing a lot of talent on the offensive line and McDougald and Oporum on defense. The secondary is still going to be a little rough next year unless recruiting brings in immediate help. But if there is a QB who can complete more than 50 percent of passes next year to some receivers that can get open, the offense will be balanced and potent.

Well the good news continues to roll in for recruiting. KU just picked up a commitment from an offensive lineman out of City College of San Francisco, Ngalu Fusimalohi.

Guy looks like a pretty good get at 6' 3" 300, and could fill take over immediately for the departing seniors. Based on his video, looks like he has quick feet, solid blocking downfield and plays either the left or right side of the line so Grunny could have a nice roadgrader on his hands.